Vol. 31, No. 6, 8. Learning Ethics the Hard Way: A Review of Integrity by Egil Bud Krogh with Matthew Krogh.

• Author: Author: Gregory C. Dyekman

Wyoming Bar Journal

2008.

Vol. 31, No. 6, 8.

Learning Ethics the Hard Way: A Review of Integrity by Egil Bud Krogh with Matthew Krogh

Wyoming Bar Journal Issue: December, 2008 Author: Gregory C. Dyekman Learning Ethics the Hard Way: A Review of "Integrity" by Egil "Bud" Krogh with Matthew Krogh

It's a little hard to believe that it was more than 35 years ago that the Watergate Scandal rocked the foundations of our government, creating an atmosphere of distrust and cynicism from which our country has never recovered. Some will remember the name Egil Krogh as the first Nixon administration official to plead guilty and be sentenced to prison for his role as head of a Special Investigations Unit known as "The Plumbers." Krogh was 32 and fresh out of law school after some time in the military when John Ehrlichman asked him to join the Nixon administration in Washington, D.C. He worked on a number of issues, including drug enforcement and gun control, but it was his appointment to head up a special group formed to stop leaks of confidential government information that led to his undoing. A series of leaks to the press infuriated President Nixon to the point that he demanded that action be taken to stop them. His ideas included subjecting hundreds of government employees to lie detector tests (though those tests were not actually administered). The special investigations unit (SIU) included Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, who ultimately came up with the idea to burglarize the office of a psychiatrist in Beverly Hills whose patient, Daniel Ellsberg, was an employee of the Rand Institute and was thought to be the Pentagon Papers leaker. The idea was to find damaging information about Ellsberg. Krogh ultimately approved the break-in and was later shocked to find that not only had serious damage been done to Dr. Fred Fielding's office, but that no useful information had been found concerning Ellsberg. Liddy told Krogh that he carried lethal weapons during the break-in and would have killed if necessary in the course of the mission, much to Krogh's surprise and dismay. Krogh eventually helped attempt to cover up the break-in at Dr. Fielding's office by lying to an assistant United States attorney.

Krogh was caught up in the "national security" justifications for covert actions against American citizens. He was very loyal to...